US: Hedge Funds Boost Profile in Lobbyingby Susan Pulliam and Tom McGinty, Wall Street Journal June 22nd, 2009Many hedge funds were relieved when the Obama administration's financial-overhaul plan included no big surprises to the lucrative, secretive industry. In 2008, major hedge funds and their trade groups spent $6.1 million lobbying Washington, up from $4.2 million in 2007 and nearly seven times the $897,000 average from 2003 to 2006.

AFRICA: Battle to Halt Graft Scourge in Africa Ebbsby Celia W. Dugger, New York Times June 9th, 2009The fight against corruption in Africa is faltering as public agencies investigating wrongdoing by powerful politicians have been undermined and officials leading the charge have been dismissed, subjected to death threats and driven into exile. The search is on for more effective ways to tackle corruption, including intensified legal efforts to prosecute multinational corporations that pay the bribes and reclaim loot that African political elites have stashed abroad.

US: 'Roadless' Forest Areas Now Under Vilsackby David A. Fahrenthold, Washington PostMay 29th, 2009U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a temporary order yesterday governing development in "roadless" areas of national forests, requiring all new projects to be approved by him personally. A USDA official said it is unclear whether projects with a strictly commercial aim, such as logging or mining, will be allowed.

US: U.S. Cracks Down on Corporate Bribesby DIONNE SEARCEY, Wall Street Journal May 26th, 2009The Justice Department is increasing its prosecutions of alleged acts of foreign bribery by U.S. corporations, forcing them to take costly steps to defend against scrutiny. The crackdown under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA -- a post-Watergate law largely dormant for decades -- now extends across five continents and penetrates entire industries.

US: Activist Financier 'Terrorizes' Bankers in Foreclosure Fightby James R. Hagerty, Wall Street Journal May 20th, 2009A nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, or NACA, has emerged as one of the loudest scourges of the banking industry in the post-bubble economy. Though some bankers privately deplore his tactics, NACA's Bruce Marks is a growing influence in the lending industry and the effort to curb foreclosures.

ECUADOR: In Ecuador, Resentment of an Oil Company Oozesby SIMON ROMERO and CLIFFORD KRAUSS, New York Times May 14th, 2009Texaco, the American oil company that Chevron acquired in 2001, once poured oil waste into pits used decades ago for drilling wells in Ecuador's northeastern jungle. Texaco’s roughnecks are long gone, but black gunk from the pits seeps to the topsoil here and in dozens of other spots. These days the only Chevron employees who visit the former oil fields do so escorted by bodyguards toting guns. They represent one side in a bitter fight that is developing into the world’s largest environmental lawsuit, with $27 billion in potential damages.

US: Trustee Sues Madoff Hedge Fund Investorby Diana B. Henriques, New York Times May 7th, 2009The trustee gathering assets for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud has sued a prominent New York City hedge fund investor, J. Ezra Merkin, to recover almost $500 million withdrawn from Madoff accounts in the last six years.

US: Debt Settlers Offer Promises but Little Helpby David Streitfeld, New York TimesApril 19th, 2009With the economy on the ropes, hundreds of thousands of consumers are turning to “debt settlement” companies like Credit Solutions to escape a crushing pile of bills. State attorneys general are being flooded with complaints about settlement companies and other forms of debt relief.

US: Credit Card Processor Asked for Offshore Databy Lynnley Browning, New York Times April 15th, 2009The U.S. government is widening its investigation of offshore tax evasion to include services sold by the First Data Corporation, a large processor of credit card transactions. The I.R.S. alleged that First Data actively marketed and sold offshore services to American merchants, who in turn used the service to help their clients hide taxable income.

US: N.Y. Pension Deals Seen as Focus of Wide Inquiryby Danny Hakim, New York TimesApril 13th, 2009New York State prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether the Carlyle Group, one of the nation’s largest and most politically connected private equity firms, made millions of dollars in improper payments to intermediaries in exchange for investments from New York’s state pension fund.

IRAQ: Ex-Blackwater Workers May Return to Iraq Jobsby Rod Nordland, New York Times April 3rd, 2009Late last month Blackwater Worldwide lost its billion-dollar contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq, but by next month many of its private security guards will be back on the job here. The same individuals will just be wearing new uniforms, working for Triple Canopy, the firm that won the State Department’s new contract.

CHINA: Banks Face Big Losses From Bets on Chinese Realtyby David Barboza , New York Times April 3rd, 2009Evergrande Real Estate Group, now mired in debt, has become a symbol of China’s go-go era of investing, when international bankers, private equity deal makers and hedge fund managers from Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and others rushed here hoping to cash in on the world’s biggest building boom.

UK: Shareholders vote against RBS payBBC OnlineApril 3rd, 2009More than 90% of Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders voted against the bank's pay and pensions policy at its annual general meeting in Edinburgh. RBS does not have to make any changes as a result, saying it was a "substantive" protest at Sir Fred Goodwin's £703,000 a year pension. Sir Philip blamed RBS's difficulties on its acquisition of the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007.

US: Banks Get New Leeway in Valuing Their Assets by Floyd Norris, New York Times April 2nd, 2009A once-obscure accounting rule was changed Thursday to give banks more discretion in reporting the value of mortgage securities. Apparently under political pressure, the five-member Financial Accounting Standards Board approved a controversial change that makes it possible for banks to keep some declines in asset values off their income statements.

US/CANADA: Alaskan lake’s fate could echo across continentby Todd Wilkinson, Christian Science MonitorMarch 24th, 2009A landmark legal case now before the US Supreme Court holds huge implications for lakes across the continent. Nearly four decades the Clean Water Act was passed to protect waterways from industrial pollution, a proposal by Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. to dispose of tons of effluent in Alaska's Lower Slate Lake has sparked an international debate.

US: Bonus Money at Troubled A.I.G. Draws Heavy Criticismby EDMUND L. ANDREWS and PETER BAKER, New York Times March 15th, 2009American International Group, which has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money, is to pay executives in the business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year $165 million in bonuses. The bonuses will go forward because lawyers say the firm is contractually obligated to pay them.

US: They Tried to Outsmart Wall Streetby Dennis Overbye, New York Times March 9th, 2009Physicists and other scientists have flooded Wall Street in recent years, known as “quants” because they do quantitative finance. They arrived on Wall Street in the midst of a financial revolution. Galloping inflation had made finances more complicated and risky, and it required sophisticated mathematical expertise to parse even simple investments like bonds.